Teenagers at risk

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A legal anomaly dictates that when 17-year-olds are held in a police station they are treated as adults (unlike those 16 and under)

Sir, Today a petition of more than 50,000 signatures will be delivered to
Downing Street by two families whose children tragically took their own
lives.

Joe Lawton, 17, killed himself after his detention in police custody. Edward
Thornber, also 17, took his life after he was wrongly issued with a court
summons. Neither boy’s parents were informed that they had been in a police
station, and these tragic deaths might not have occurred had they known.

A legal anomaly dictates that when 17-year-olds are held in a police station
they are treated as adults (unlike those 16 and under), denying